You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast.
Love football, learn English.
Arsenal 2, Tottenham 1. Did the best team win?
How good was Gabriel, the Arsenal centre-back, in this game?
What do we make of Antonin Kinsky's performance?
And what do phrases devoid of and bereft of mean?
Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Footglitch Podcast.
My name is Denik Lucas and I'm your host.
And I should say that I'm an English teacher and this is a podcast for English learners who are also football enthusiasts.
I hope my guest is also a football enthusiast.
In fact, I know for a fact that he is.
Hello, hi Denik. Hello everyone.
Yeah, I am. I have been a football enthusiast for at least the past 10 years.
Yeah.
How are you going? How are you doing so far?
I'm okay. I have almost fully recovered from the illness that has besieged me in the recent days.
But I also want to ask you, Nrup, if you had to get rid of one sport
and you had to pick between cricket and football, which sport would you go for?
Because I know you are a big cricket enthusiast as well.
I am. I am. If I had to get rid of one sport, then I would go for, that's a good question,
probably football because in cricket itself there are many formats
and those formats itself are becoming more and more as a separate entity.
So you can create different games unlike football.
Football has always been a 90 minute game.
Thank you very much for featuring on this episode of the Footgrish Podcast.
Everyone, thanks a lot. Please don't forget to like and subscribe.
That's it for today. We don't have a guest unfortunately, so we will have to leave it there.
All right, of course, I'm just joking.
And as you can see, I'm in good spirits.
And that's because the team that we both support, that is Arsenal,
has just won the North London Derby, which is obviously always a great achievement,
especially if the results in the recent days have been so poor.
I would say that we didn't go into this game in the right frame of mind
because we have recently had two shocking performances in cup games.
Am I right?
Yeah, we had back-to-back losses in the cup games,
in which one we were knocked out completely and another one we are almost halfway in that.
So yeah, it has been a shocking performance lately.
On top of that, we have had some critical injuries and some long-term stuffs,
along with having a small squad.
It's tough to have a fully fit squad with such an amount of players and also with the availability.
It's tough to maintain 100% fit players as well.
So I'm sure even with the starting lineup, I don't think we have had players that are 100% match fit
or maybe 100% match sharpness.
That's true, but we managed to bounce back in the most important game of the season,
the North London Derby, the Tottenham-Hutspur-Arsenal Derby.
It was happening at the Emirates, right? It was a home game.
It was a home game and I'm really happy with the score.
After that win, I was just casually checking the rankings, the standings,
and guess what? We have the best home record in the Premier League.
Best home record in the Premier League?
Yeah. When was the last time we had such a thing?
Because I remember in the past few years, we have always been a team that was always good at away games.
We used to be like away game monsters and we would always concede lots of goals at home and have ugly draws.
But yeah, I'm really happy with it.
Yeah, no, it's definitely a great way to get back after those two poor performances against Manchester United and Newcastle United.
So where do we start with analysing this game?
First of all, can you stop fiddling with whatever you're fiddling with? Thank you very much.
Thank you. Sorry for that.
No, that's okay. You can do it one more time. I'll let you do it one more time and then that's it.
Anyway, it's just my screen.
No, that's fine. You know, can't get any worse after what you said at the beginning about football.
So basically, we have to start by saying that we actually went behind in this game.
The son of a... Oh, the Korean striker Son scored the first goal.
Son of a young... Son of a min.
Anyway, but yeah, I mean, honestly, I was not surprised, but it was just that I did not prefer it to be them scoring first than us or them scoring before us could have scored a goal.
You do not prefer it. You do not prefer it.
Well, nobody wants to go behind because it's a psychological moment, right?
Sure, but like I was expecting him to score as well because it's been a while since he has since he was in the limelight of the Tottenham Tottenham Tottenham games.
Usually it's always Solanthio somewhere scoring and he's...
He always has a knack for scoring against us as well, right?
Exactly. So yeah, I mean, honestly, in one way, if you look at it, it was...
We were basically part of God because it was during a free kick and nobody man marked him and it was just it was a deflection goal as well.
Yeah, a wicked deflection.
Yeah, but still goal is a goal. So it was a bit nervy, but I did not have my hopes down because if you look at our moments before that, we have had our moments.
We looked strong. We looked dominating against them.
Basically, they were just prepared for a counter attack. That's what it looked like with the way how they played their football.
But then...
The irony is that luck struck, we could say, because we actually were gifted a corner from the referee because it wasn't a corner at all.
It wasn't. It wasn't.
Which makes it hilarious, but also very frustrating for the Spurs fans, obviously.
But we managed to score from that corner. I think Kinski bumped into Antonin Kinski, the Czech goalkeeper, the new signing Tottenham.
He bumped into one of his own players and then the ball fell on Gabriel's head. And that's always danger. He did not score directly.
It was an own goal.
Yeah, it was an own goal because his header went into Solanke, I think. It was in the end.
So Solanke scored an own goal, but it was a good response from us. But not long after that, we scored the winning goal.
Yeah, I'm really happy with that. That goal was really nice. It was high time that I was expecting it.
Even though we scored the winning goal, I still wasn't satisfied with that goal because there's this 2-1 psychology in football games that when you are usually 2-1 up against a team, there's a good chance that they will score back.
But again, I think it's more of a phenomenon or something like that.
No, it's true. Because you are within reach. You just need one goal and anything could happen. But it was enough. So Trossard scored our winner.
It was a long-range drive.
Yeah, half-volley, I guess, as well.
Yeah, something like that. It also bounced. So again, the keeper, Antoni Kinski, was a bit suspect. Actually, he didn't seem to be at his best in this game, despite his first two games playing really well for Tottenham.
I heard from their fans that he's a real revelation. But in this game, he seemed to have been a bit... I describe it as either nervously confident or confidently nervous. You can choose whichever one you want.
I think he was confidently nervous because if you look at his previous performances, I think he did well on paper. You have to remember, it's not London Derby. As of lately, Tottenham have had their moments.
They knew that Arsenal were not at their best. They were having lots of weak points. So I'm sure that, along with being at Emirates, a stadium with one of the most average attendees in the top five leagues, I think it's a bit intimidating.
So you think the occasion got to him, basically?
Yeah, I think so. He's a young guy from the Czech Republic, which is not part of the top five leagues. But still, he's playing for Tottenham Hotspur, top six Premier League team.
I was checking the player ratings after the game because I expected him to be quite low. And actually, he wasn't one of the worst players of Tottenham.
I don't think so. I think it was probably Poro, no?
I can't remember, but I think Bissouma or someone like that. Basically, he did alright because he managed to catch a lot of crosses and corners. So I think he was alright.
He made some good saves.
He made some good saves, but there were also some hairy moments when it came to his playing with the ball at his feet. Usually, he's very good at this, but it almost looks like Arsenal did their homework on him because they were pressing him really successfully, I thought.
Yeah, usually, Arsenal always prefers pressing the game, but this time, it felt like they were trying harder. They were much more upfront, and it looked like they knew what they were here for.
Yeah, I mean, although it did not reward them any goals, I still think that it was enough to intimidate the players and perhaps change the playing style or whatever Tottenham were doing.
Yeah, I also heard that basically what Arsenal players were doing is that they were forcing Kinski to play with his weaker foot.
Yeah, so I can't remember whether it's the right or left right now. It doesn't matter, but they were showing him onto his weaker foot, which means really they studied this keeper very well because he's good with his feet.
But you can only do so much as a keeper, right? You need your teammates to help you.
And I thought in a lot of cases, Arsenal pressers or players who were pressing were like wasps. They were like four or five players on Tottenham's defence, and Tottenham's defence seemed to be outnumbered in a lot of moments.
And that's a surprise to me how effective we were and how we managed to stifle Ansh Postekuglu's system in this game.
Yeah, I mean the score doesn't say the reality. Even though it's 2-1, I think we were pretty dominant against them. They had their moment, no doubt, but still generally speaking, we had the upper hand completely.
We could have scored much more goals. We could have even avoided the goals that were scored by Son, but yeah, it was our game. I'm really happy with that.
You're right. I think we deserved to win. If you look at the stats, we dominated the stats and it was a well-deserved victory. I don't think Tottenham's coach can say anything positive about his players, about his performance in this massive game for both teams.
Nruba, I've got some questions about a few players specifically, a few Arsenal players. I'm going to start with Raheem Sterling, because to me, this player just seems to be... and I'm not just talking about this game, but overall, his spell at Arsenal, he seems to be devoid of confidence and also bereft of any kind of skill, to be honest, which is a deadly combination.
If you don't have confidence, if you don't have skill, what do you have? What do you have left? Just your name and you can't win games or you can't be good just because of your name, in my opinion. You need to constantly prove yourself in football, in any walk of life that you're involved in.
I absolutely agree with you. Raheem Sterling, if you look at it, he's one of the big Premier League icons. He's been there for 10 years, I guess, if I'm not wrong. He's been there for such a long time. I remember him from the days when he was 18, 19 in Liverpool and then he went to City, won two or three titles. He was a co-player in that. It was not like he was a French player and he was lucky. He was there in those City matches through and through and he helped them.
In the national team as well. Exactly. And he's still young. How old is he? 29? I think 28, 29? 30. He's only 30. Yeah, he's only 30. He's still around the age where at least they reach their physical peak or performance peak. He still has a lot of room left.
But it's just that I think the way he exited City and his life at Chelsea, I think it brought on his confidence because I still rate him well, but not well enough to be part of Arsenal's team. I think the problem is... I'm sorry to interrupt you, Noob, but I think one of the issues is that he has replaced Bukayo Sakka.
And that adds to it because it's such a stark contrast. You have such a stark contrast of those two players and the impact they have on the team that these two players are incomparable.
Bukayo Sakka is a world-class player and he is involved in so many goals, whether it's assists or goals. He forces the opposition players to press him. He creates a lot of space for other players.
Whereas Raheem Sterling, when he has the ball, he stops. He stops and then he's trying to invite pressure on himself. But then once he stops, it's almost like there's nothing else going to come out of it.
He can't dribble past the players anymore. He doesn't have that confidence or he makes the wrong decision or something. I'm really sorry, but this player is just not good enough.
Yeah, I'm glad that he's here all alone because he does remind me of Alex Evo B during his late days at Arsenal. He used to be a similar player like Raheem Sterling.
They both had this explosive man's days. They used to be proper wingers. But then now Raheem Sterling is playing more of an inside midfielder attacking midfielder.
He goes more inside. He likes to play in the pocket, but then he's not going to dribble. Nor does he provide enough crosses or assists.
But yeah, he's probably one of the... I'm sorry. Go on. No, it's just that he has big shoes to fill and with the current situation that we have had, I don't think we have got any other better replacement because you cannot depend on Martin all the time.
Especially on the right side where I don't think it's a strength. So yeah, I'm considering... You could play Trossard there. Trossard, I think, might be...
I don't think... But I don't think Trossard would like... I don't think from what I've seen in Belgium and in Arsenal, even though he's a left-footed player, he still prefers to play on the left side rather than right side.
Okay. Well, you could also play Martin Odegaard there and then sacrifice him, put him on the right and then maybe Trossard from the middle.
I don't know. Definitely any other solution is better than Raheem Sterling. It looks like I am biased against this player. I'm picking on him, but it also bothers me that he's probably one of our best, the highest earners at the club.
I'm pretty sure about it. He has the best money. He's on the best money because of course he is, right?
Yeah, I don't know about that, but I think... Isn't it covered by Chelsea? Since he's on loan.
You think... Yeah, but don't we pay some of his salary? I don't know how it works. Fortunately, I don't have to pay this salary, so I'm good.
Yeah, well, Sterling is definitely a strange player. I hope that he doesn't end up on the villain side of our team. I hope we have good memories with him because he's still here.
He might score the Champions League final winner or something and then we will all forgive him, right? You never know. It's football.
Football is a crazy game. Yeah, let's keep our hope. I would like him to score two goals against Newcastle if it's possible because that's the nearest objective right now.
True, true. Maybe ideally a hat-trick because we need three goals. So what about the player whose name is Luis Scali? What about him?
So Miles Luis Scali, I think he's good. He's this typical Pep Guardiola or Arteta type player who wants to play in that inverted fullback or whatever.
Well, he actually... First of all, he's only 18 years old, so he's an academy product. And from what I heard is that he played in the youth football, he played center midfielder.
And now because he cannot play there at Arsenal, he was put on the left. I think something similar happened to Bukayo Saka at some part of his career, I think at Arsenal, something like that.
He also didn't always play this position. I think he was also a left back or right back.
Yeah, I mean, Bukayo Saka, he was made to play left back because of injuries, but then he was more of a traditional left back than an inverted fullback or whatever you call it.
But Miles Luis Scali, I think he's a solid player. I still see him as an English version of Zinchenko who just likes to play up in the pockets, who likes to play as a midfielder more than a fullback.
I'm still not impressed with his defensive abilities. But again, he's still young, he's got a lot to do. Hopefully, he plays in the midfield in the future. That's what I think, or that's what I hope.
But I think he's doing well. Personal preference would be Tierney in for me, but I don't know what's up with Tierney, like if he's still fit or if he's not in the plans.
There's a reason he's not seeing.
No, I know. But there are many reasons because I remember last interview, a press conference auditor said that he just recovered from a long term injury, so he doesn't have the match sharpness and he's afraid that he might get injured again.
But a fully fit Tierney and a fully fit Miles Luis Scali, I would prefer Tierney. I just love him as a player.
Okay, well that's fair. That's fair, but I think since he's such a... But he had a future right from Miles Luis Scali. I just hope that he doesn't leave another player. I forgot his name, but he left for Chelsea or something. I think it's probably Hutchinson.
Or some player who left for Chelsea for a bigger money.
Who would do that?
Well, we have got Ashley Cole.
Yeah, but that's Cashly. His name was Cashly. That was his nickname. Cashly Cole.
Right, and finally, the player that was picked as the man of the match by commentators, Gabriel.
Not Batistuta, not Gabriel Martinelli.
But not Gabriel Jesus, who is unfortunately torn his ACL, I think. But Gabriel Magalhaes. Our center defender.
I think he's been our best player in the past two, three, four games, I guess. He's been solid. He just looks sharp. He looks much better than William Saliba as of now, because if you look at our previous goals, it's always coming from William Saliba's side.
And Gabriel, he's doing his job perfectly. If I'm not wrong, his passing, his work rate, it has all been great.
Whenever he concedes or makes a mistake, he makes sure that he shows his fans that, no, I'll recover from that. I'll give to you guys much better things. He's a proper team player.
And his celebrations are incredibly fun to watch as well.
His celebrations, his voice, especially, because I remember whenever there is an awkward or weird silence, I will always hear this high pitched scream from Gabriel.
I will always laugh at him like, come on, this guy, he's hilarious. He's so funny. But at the same time, he's a warrior.
He's a warrior, but with not so masculine voice, basically.
He's got lots of things in his abilities. And I was really glad because we needed that goal.
And we needed that from him, especially because it's been a while since we have scored from a corner.
It's been a while since we have scored from an attacker as well. So it's usually the defenders that cover up the game.
OK, well, let's have a moment of silence for Tottenham now. One win out of nine Premier League games.
It reminds me of Manchester City a little bit and their crisis, who, by the way, have lost a game in which they were 2-0 up.
Was it against Brentford? I think so. Yeah. Yeah, that was hilarious as well.
But Tottenham, yeah, the only thing that, like the only reason I don't wish Tottenham to, I mean, get relegated this season and to completely lose it,
to completely be out of it is Antonin Kinski, the Czech goalkeeper. Now I have at least some sympathy for Tottenham, right?
It's a Czech player and I have to support him. But, you know, I'm terribly, terribly sorry, but I am happy that Arsenal won this game.
I'm sorry, Antonin Kinski. Yeah, Tottenham won one win in nine games.
That's some form, I would say, considering how they were last season and considering how the score looks like.
And we also have to say that us, Arsenal, we managed to close the gap a little bit.
We are closing the gap because Liverpool, they did not win their game against Tottenham.
They drew 1-1, so points dropped, which is great. And we managed to take advantage of that.
We capitalised on that with this win. So I think we are now four points behind.
Obviously, Liverpool have one game in hand, but still, I think it's a great achievement for us. And long may it last.
Yeah, long may it last. I'm not surprised because many people say that, you know, Liverpool, they won't lose any game or something.
But it's not about losing, it's about dropping points, you know. If you lose two games or if you draw three games, you still drop six points.
You lose momentum and it's about that confidence and it can be quite fragile. It can be difficult what's happening to City.
Tottenham, 13th position now, 13th place. They are even behind West Ham.
They're struggling with West Ham. Now West Ham is ahead of Tottenham.
Look at Manchester United, you know, I think this season is so crazy. Anything could happen.
We could even see Nottingham Forest winning the title this season. You never know.
Don't say that. I haven't traumatised because I recently saw a social media post where they were comparing Leicester City,
where they were in the title winning season and where Nottingham Forest won it. And they were pretty close.
And those are pretty close numbers. And yeah, I just hope that they don't do that.
I hope Nottingham Forest just helps us when the league becomes our... does what Arsenal did for Leicester basically.
Yeah, well, too much would have to go in their favour.
Stars would have to really align for Nottingham Forest to win. But wouldn't that be amazing? I mean, it would be such a story.
As much as I want Arsenal to win, I think this would be my second preferred option if Nottingham Forest wins.
Same here, same here. We definitely need a new face.
Pardon? We need a new face?
Yeah, we need a new face for this season.
OK, I thought you mean we need a new face on the Footgris podcast. But no, no, no, we will stick with the usual faces.
One of them is Nrup, of course. Thank you very much, Nrup, for your appearance today and for your performance as well.
And for managing to stay on the pitch, not receiving a red card or anything like that, for not getting injured.
Well, I did receive a yellow for my plus statement.
You got a yellow, but that's just a warning. Just don't pick up too many yellows. Otherwise you get suspended.
But I think one yellow is, you know, it's fine. One for the team.
A hollow doesn't make a spring, right?
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much for bringing me into this show.
It's been a while. And thank you, listeners, for listening to our talk.
I think. Yeah, you're very welcome. And don't forget that the Footgris podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts, the usual apps and on Spotify, Apple podcasts, you name it.
But also most of these podcasts are on the TeachersDenek YouTube channel where you can see our lovely faces.
So if you are there, give us a like as well. It goes a long way.
All the way from India. This was Nrup, ladies and gentlemen, and Zdenek currently in Thailand.
So take care and have a good night, everyone. Bye bye. Bye bye.
Welcome back to the Language Corner. The episode itself, the interview with Nrup was pretty long.
So I think we can keep this one short and sweet just to remind you.
In this part of the show, I'm going to be an English teacher.
It's it almost sounds like I'm pretending to be an English teacher. I'm an imposter.
No, I'm not. It's actually my profession. I am a qualified English teacher, in fact, so I should know what I'm doing.
Anyway, this time I will be explaining two items of vocabulary, two phrases.
I said in the episode that spurs or Tottenham, I can't exactly remember, I said that they were devoid of ideas and bereft of skill.
And both devoid and bereft are used to indicate a lack or absence of something.
But they have a slightly different nuance. And notice how they are also both used with the preposition of.
Basically, if you're bereft of something, it implies that there is a sense of loss or deprivation.
It often carries some kind of emotional or dramatic tone. Right.
So often we use it with the word hope, for example, you could say they were bereft of hope in this game.
They were bereft of ideas. I said bereft of skill. I guess you can use it as well like that.
And I hear often commentators use these two phrases almost interchangeably in the same way.
You can be devoid of options, devoid of ideas. It's like a lack lack of options, lack of ideas.
And devoid, you know, the word void, it means emptiness. Right.
So to be devoid of something means that there is a complete absence of something, absolute emptiness.
But this one is slightly more neutral and less emotional than bereft of.
At the end of the day, they more or less mean the same.
Well, I hope you didn't think that in this episode of the Footgrish podcast, Nrup and I were devoid of ideas and bereft of insight, let's say.
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
And if you did, why don't you leave a comment on the YouTube channel, on the Teachers' Denic YouTube channel, where this episode also will be published.
There is an audio version, which you can get wherever you get your podcasts.
And then there is a video version on the YouTube channel.
OK, that's it from me. Thank you very much for listening.
And I will speak to you soon. Take care, everyone. Bye bye.